Kavre, July 4

As per the latest count, the number of earthquake victims in Kavre district has come down by 16 per cent.

The latest data collected by the National Reconstruction Authority showed that there are 67,645 earthquake victim households entitled to the government house construction grant of Rs 200,000.

The figure thus identified by the NRA’s recent count is down from the erstwhile 80,618 households that had managed to procure Rs 15,000 to build temporary shelters in the aftermath of the quake.

“The recent count says that there are just 67,645 quake-affected families, which is 16.9 per cent less than the earlier count of 80,618,” said Chief District Engineer Sunilraj Giri of the district technician’s office.

NRA sub-regional office- Dhulikhel Section Officer Chanchal Kumar Khadka said the signing of contracts for housing grant that had halted earlier in 35 VDCs due to protests by quake victims, who were irked by their exclusion from the NRA’s list of grant receivers, has begun recently.

“After the NRA prepared the list, some villagers had obstructed the grant-signing, protesting their exclusion from the list, but the process has started in those villages now,” said Khadka, adding that the contract signing process has begun in all but Panchkhal Municipality.

As many as 318 persons had died in the quake in the district last year.